https://youtu.be/rR2J_aHL09c
en français
— conference recorded at Les Champs Libres (Rennes) in December 2023 in the framework of the series "What stories for our time?", moderated by Yann Apperry - Screenwriter, Playwright and Novelist - and Nicolás Buenaventura - Writer-director and Storyteller.
While the stories of a world in crisis are hitting us, how can we not fall into madness?Can we think of stories as way to re-weave ourselves, as an individual and collective reconstruction?With Roberto Beneduce - ethnopsychiatrist and anthropologist, Julie Budtz Sørensen - Danish screenwriter, Tamara Russell - neuroscience and martial arts specialist & Mathilde Delespine - Midwife, coordinator of the Maison des femmes Gisèle Halimi at Rennes University Hospital
Tamara Russell
From the "we" to the "I".
So I suppose the thing that's been preoccupying me, as I engage with the world through the lens that I have, which is neuroscience and martial arts, is trying to think about the conception of a story in terms of, is it a thought? Is it a movement? Is it a mental movement that comes from he imagination? Is it a heart movement that inspires us through feeling and sensing, and the role of the physical body and the physical movements as part of that conceiving of a story?
The place where I often come back to, particularly when I'm struck and pained by the state of the world, a collective psychosis, some have referred to it as a madness, that we've become trapped in or stuck in, is, again, where does that reside in us as individuals?
Because my sense is, if we need to curate collective stories, there's a self-responsibility that we first examine our own stories as individuals.
So in that movement from I to "we", we don't just jump over the "I" and suddenly go to the we and discover that we're carrying a lot of our own wounds and pains and biases with us.
And if I think about healing stories and healing journeys, what the martial arts has taught me is there's a lot we can do for our own healing if you're able to feel into your own wounds, whether those are physical, psychological, or mental.
From the inner to the outer.
So, this idea of being a researcher of our own experience through sensing, through touch, allowing us to contact our own wounds and pains, which then opens that doorway to be more compassionate when we're engaging with the wounds and the pains of others around us.
Listening to make sense.
What happens when information comes into our brain when we're listening? Very naturally, our brain is trying to organize and make sense of that information. And quite quickly, it brings up as many of the experiences that we can connect to as possible, because it's kind of sorting through and trying to make sense, like, do I have an experience of this? Can I connect to this in some way? So we have this natural propensity to try to make sense of that information in relation to our own experience. And that's not wrong or bad, but the awareness of that and the power that may come from that, particularly if you're in a hierarchical position as a therapist or as a doctor.
Open listening to stay connected.
How do I listen without problem solving?
How do I listen without sort of pre-emptively diagnosing? And I mean, for me, mindfulness practice, meditation practice has been essential for that, because I'm able to sort of spot it arising more quickly and mostly able to deal with it.
